Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a ballast water treatment apparatus and method for a ship using a forward osmosis process, and more particularly, to a ballast water treatment apparatus and method for a ship using a forward osmosis process, capable of treating and producing ballast water in a ship using a forward osmosis process so as to supply eco-friendly ballast water to the ship in a low-cost and high efficient manner.
Description of the Related Art
Ballast water in a ship is sea water filled within the ship, and serves to improve safety of the ship by lowering a center of gravity of the ship or adjusting horizontal balance of the ship according to a cargo amount. In addition, the ballast water lowers the center of gravity of the ship to prevent propulsion from decreasing due to rising of a propeller near to a water surface when the center of gravity of the ship becomes high and to prevent fatigue failure caused by impact with the water surface when the propeller is rotated, thereby enabling the ship to be effectively operated.
The ballast water in the ship is an essential condition in navigation. However, sea water collected from a loading place of cargoes is used as the ballast water and the used ballast water is discharged to an unloading place of cargoes, thereby allowing marine organisms to be artificially moved. For this reason, there is a problem in that a marine ecosystem is disturbed and destroyed. In addition, the ballast water is one of the causes of marine pollution. Accordingly, in order to resolve these problems, “a Ballast Water Management Act (2004)” is internationally adopted and a ballast water treatment system will be defined to be obligatorily installed in ships from all over the world from 2017.
As disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-1204879, ballast water in a ship is conventionally treated by a chemical treatment method of injecting a sterilization component such as ozone or chlorine into collected sea water, a method of electrically treating collected sea water, a physical treatment method of simply filtering collected sea water, or the like. However, since the treated ballast water is exposed to chemicals in such a conventional ballast water treatment method, a marine ecosystem is contaminated when the ballast water is discharged after being used. In addition, a method of having little influence on the marine ecosystem is costly. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an eco-friendly ballast water treatment system for a ship, capable of treating and supplying ballast water in a ship in a low-cost and high efficient manner and having little influence on a marine ecosystem.